Papek-finger



0. A. HOKANSON AND A. 0. H. EBERT.

PAPER FINGER.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 8. 1918.

1,3 10,829. Patented July 22, 1919.

TED STATES one.

OTTO A. HOKANSON AND ALFRED O. H. EBERT, OF WOODSTOCK, ILLINOIS, ASSIG-NORS TO WOODSTOCK TYPEWRITEROOMPAN Y, 0F WOODSTOCK, ILLINOIS, A CORPORATION OF ILLINOIS.

PAPER-FIN GER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented July 22, 1919.

Application filed July 8, 1918. Serial No. 243,823.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, O'rro A. HOKANSON and ALFRED O. H. EBERT, citizens of the United States, residing at Voodstock, in the county of McHenry and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Paper-Fingers, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to the means for holding paper, or other material to be printed against the platen of a typewriter, and the principal object of the invention is to provide a new and improved construction by which the material to be printed or written upon will be held yieldingly against the platen in either upper or lower case position, the paper finger being so pivoted that it can be withdrawn from contact with the platen for erasure or manipulation of the paper beneath the paper finger, but can only be held away from the platen by manual attention thereto. Other objects of the illvention will appear hereinafter.

The invention consists in the novel construction, combination and arrangement of the several parts.

In the accompanying drawing Figure 1 is a front elevation of a pair of paper fingers mounted at the front of a typewriter platen.

Fig. 2 is a sectional view taken on line 2-2 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a rear View of one of the paper fingers; and

Fig. 4: is a plan view of a portion of a paper finger when it is rotated forwardly in the broken line position as shown in Fig. 2.

It is desirable that a paper finger shall exert suflicient pressure upon the typwriter platen to hold the paper, or other material firmly against the platen in all posit1ons, and it is also desirable that the paper finger may be of such construction that it can be withdrawn from contact with such material as desired without rotating or moving the platen. In the present invention a pivoted paper finger is provided whlch has an engaging spring tongue so disposed that the paper finger is held yieldingly against the platen, and the tongue is provldcd with engaging portions which prevent the paper finger proper from being rotated to such a position that the spring tongue will not return it to contact with the platen. This insures that the finger of the operator must be held upon the paper finger to hold it away from the platen.

Referring now more particularly to the drawmg, a space bar 1 is fixed in front of and below a rotatable and vertically shiftable platen 2, and in front of the platen is a shiftable line finder 3 which moves vertically with the platen and is guided in its verticalmovement by studs 4; which project rearwardly from some parts, such as the type bar segment (not shown) in front of the line finder.

Slidable on the bar 1 are two paper fingers, one on each side of the line finder 3, and each paper finger comprises a slidable portion 5 which has the upper and lower edges 6 and 7 bent over the front edge at the top and bottom of the bar, respectively, so that they do not cover the graduated face 8 of the bar, which is preferably extended beyond the upper and lower edges. This slidable portion 5 is also formed with an upstanding central tongue 9 which has a recess 10 in its upper edgeand with pivoting portions 11, in which a pivot pin 12 is mounted.

Mounted on the pivot pin 12 is the rotatable portion 13 of the paper finger which comprises a central integral tongue 14 with a reduced portion 15 near the free end ada ted to enter the recess 10 and with projections 16 at the end of this reduced portion 15 for engaging the sides of the fixed tongue 9 which form the recess 10 so that when the rotatable portion 13 is bent for- Wardly, as shown in-Fig. 2, the projections 16 of the tongue 14 will engage the sides of the recess 10, as shown more clearly in Fig. 4. At the upper end of the paper finger a bearing roller 17 is mounted in a recess and the upper extremity 18 is turned outwardly from the platen to form an engaging finger hold portion. The outer side of each paper finger is provided with a projection 19 which is adapted to engage the outer edge of the line finder 3, as indicated in Fig. 1, so that neither paper finger can be moved inwardly to cover an opening 20 at the center of the line finder, or to cover the printing point, which is substantially at the center of this opening on a line with the graduated edge 21 thereof. The outer ed cs 22 of i the line finder are bent outwardly rom the platen 2 so that the paper fingers will readily slide under the line finder, but neither one of them can be moved inwardly to cover the printing point because of the engagement of its projection 19 at the outer side of the line finder which is guided in its vertical movement by the studs 4 which also prevent the engagen'lent of the paper fingers from disturbing lateral alinement or position of the line finder.

It will be observed that the spring tongue 14 by its engagement with the spring tongue 9 of the slidable portion of the paper finger prevents the forward movement of the rotatable portion of the paper finger beyond the position where it will be returned to again contact with the platen which insures that the paper finger must be manually held in its forward position, and that as soon as the manual pressure is relieved, it will be returned to again contact with the platen.

\Ve claim:

1. A paper finger having a slidable member, and a pivoted member with an integral spring tongue which normally engages the slidable member for pressing the pivoted member in one direction from the slidable member and also with a portion which limits manual movement of the pivoted member in the other direction so that the pivoted member is always returned by the spring tongue in the first-mentioned direction as soon as the manual engagement is released.

2. A paper finger having a slidable member with an upstanding projection, and a portion pivoted thereto having an integral spring tongue to engage the projection, tending to press the portion away from the member in one direction, the tongue and projection having inter-engaging means for limiting the movement of the pivoted portion in the other direction and for immediately returning the member in the firstnamed direction when manually released from the limiting position.

3. A paper finger having a slid-able member with an upstanding resilient projection, and a portion pivoted thereto having an integral spring tongue adapted to engage the projection for limiting the movement of the. pivoted portion in one direction so that this pivoted port-ion will always be returned by the resilient engagement of the parts.

4. A paper finger having a member with an upstanding projection, and a portion pivoted thereto with a spring tongue normally engaging the rear of the projection for holding the pivoted portion in predetermined position. the pivoted portion being manually rotatable forwardly to engage the spring tongue with the top of the said proposition as soon as released from manual engagement.

5. A paper finger having a member with an upstan ing resilient projection of which the upper edge is formed with a recess, and a portion pivoted to the member having an integral spring tongue normally enq ping the rear of the projection but having a reduced portion adjacent the end the tongue with an enlarged portion at the end adapted to engage the recess at the upper end of the projection to limit the movement of the pivoted portion in a forward direction.

6. A paper finger having a member with an upstanding spring tongue having a recess at its upper edge, and a member pivoted to the first member with an integral spring tongue having a reduced portion adjacent the free extremity thereof to engage in the recess at the top of the projection only when the finger is rotated forwardly, the engagement of the spring tongue with the spring projection serving always to return the pivoted member from its forward position.

7. In a typewriter, a platen and a bar in front of and below the platen, a paper finger having a portion slidable on the bar and another portion pivoted in the slidable portion, both of said paper finger portions having spring tongues which contact with each other to press the .pivoted portion against the platen, the spring tongues being provided with inter-engaging means to limit the manual movement of the pivoted portion away from the platen and always to return it to engage the platen when released from manual engagement.

8. In a typewriter, a platen and a bar in front of and below the platen, a paper finger having a portion slidable on the bar, and another portion pivoted in the slidable por tion, both of said paper finger portions having spring tongues which contact with each other to press the pivoted portion against the platen, the spring tongues being provided with interengaging means to limit the movement of the pivoted portion away from the platen and to automatically return the pivoted portion to contact with the platen after being manually rotated free from engagement therewith.

9. The combination with a platen and a bar disposed below and atthe front of the platen, of a paper finger comprising a portion slidable on the bar having an upright spring projection with a recess in its upper edge, and a portion pivoted to the slidable portion having an integral spring tongue the free end of which is formed with a reduced portion near the end, the spring tongue normally engaging the rear side of the projection for pressing the pivoted portion against the platen and the said reduced portion engaging in the recess of the said projection for limiting the forward rotation of the pivoted portion and for always returning the pivoted portion to contact with the platen.

10. The combination with a platen and a bar at the front of and below the platen, both transversely reciprocable; of a vertically movable line finder, with a guide for holding it against lateral movement and a paper finger having a portion slidable on the bar and another portion pivoted to the slidable portion with a projection at one side of the pivoted portion, the pivoted and slidable portions of the paper finger having interengaging spring portions for limitlng the forward pivotal motion and to return the pivoted portion to contact with the platen, and the projection from the pivoted portion being adapted to engage the outer edge of the line finder for preventing the movement thereof over the printing point at the center of the line finder due to the transverse movement of the platen and the bar upon which the line finder is mounted.

In testimony whereof we have signed our names to this specification on this 28th day of June, A. D. 1918.

OTTO A. HOKANSON.

ALFRED O. H. EBERT. 

